on contemplation and living for justice

05/03/2011

We don't choose the moment of apocalypse

We are in an apocalyptic moment. By definition such moments are hard to recognize. An apocalyptic moment is to our world as Baptism is to an individual: “You have been baptized into the death of Christ, that you might be raised with him.” In Baptism I am asked to recognize those things in my life that are in the realm of death, that hold me back from receiving the life God is always waiting to give me, if I make room for it by clearing the dead away.

In an apocalyptic moment the world is tested to manifest the Body of Christ, the Christ of the world and not only of my family, tribe, or nation. One of the marks of a living Christ in the world is how we treat our enemies. Last Friday the largest congregation in history heard a reading from the New Testament. Three billion people listened as James Middleton read with careful enunciation and emphasis a passage from St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans. In part he read, “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse…Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all.”

Osama bin Laden qualified himself as our enemy, and indeed as a world enemy. I believe our President is right when he say that bin Laden received justice. Now then comes our moment, when the many of us, myself included, who say “Lord, Lord” are judged not by our words, but by our deeds (the reference is the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 7, a chapter that begins with “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. 2For with the judgement you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get.”)

My prayer is the prayer that ends the Book of the Apocalypse, “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.” Be manifest in our world, our whole world, our world whole.

3 Comments

I feel very troubled with my feelings about all that is happening. It´s like a mix of a satisfied revenge with sadness... Sadness for all lives that were lost on terrorist attacks, sadness for seen so many people on the streets celebrating the deaf of another human, sadness for knowing that more people like Bin Laden exist and will keep existing.

Terrorism wins when it makes one live in terror. Evil wins when it make the good souls rejoice in face of the evil.

My heart and prayers are with all my American friends. I really hope that this wound heals and that people like Osama very soon become a faded memory of something that once existed.

Anders Behring Breivik is my brother, along with Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly, Marc H. Andrus, Alan Jones and the entire human family. Yes, it is easy to embrace the few who are in harmony with my song but hard to accept those in dissonance who actually make the tension rise and move the music forward. We need everyone because a faith that is untested is worthless certainty.

Those who are called to labor in the fields, to go out and do the work that God has given us to do (isn't that everyone?) have a usual and uncomfortable prayer of not only surrender to the process but loving those who are unlike us or even seem against us. How reflective it is being blessed, as a gay man, because of those who persecute and revile us in the name of Christ. Who then is really righteous and who can be against us if God is for us? The trick can be found in humility in the face of such unbounded love and forgiveness.

What is apparently absent from our nation's capitol is conversation and dialogue, one that admits "I do not understand" rather than "You are all wrong." And I believe that another underlying cause is indeed death; death of what once was and death of old dispensations of power. Yet where there is death, there is hope. Democracy must be a different form of Eucharist, broken apart in order to be shared and given to those coming to the table where we can all be re-membered again.

How do we learn to accept each other, on our knees before the Creator of us all, and begin to hold hands and start climbing? How do I dialogue with a populace that claims to be 75% Christian while the majority are without the benefit of regular liturgical practice or connection? As a struggling evangelist, I agonize before I come to the surrender that God called me to open my faith outward rather than hide it in comfort and invisibility. I believe that I can indeed move the conversation forward because of my faith and action through faith in the world.

So thus I am grateful for the response we are all called to believe in proclaiming aloud our baptismal covenant:

What I can say is that truly we all have the need to repent if we think we are not doing or choosing the right in everything that we do. He is coming to the world for the second time and we ought to be prepared for that.http://www.phenterminehcl375.org